The Mint Report for 20 December 2010

On Monday Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared his government would not spare anyone involved in corruption, no matter how powerful. He added he was willing to appear in front of the Public Accounts Committee or PAC to counter allegations of corruption against his government. The PAC is a parliamentary panel headed by the BJP’s Murli Manohar Joshi. It’s currently reviewing the CAG report on alleged irregularities in the allocation of second-generation spectrum.

And the Prime Minister’s statement came even as the CBI sent a notice to former telecom minister A. Raja calling him for questioning in the second-general spectrum scandal. The CBI also sent out a similar notice to corporate lobbyist Nira Radia.

And in other news, loss-making carrier Air India is finally carrying out some much awaited restructuring. The airline will shift 10,000-12,000 employees to two new subsidiaries. One of those subsidiaries will carry out ground handling. The other will provide engineering services. Both units will be hived off from Air India. The airline is expected to get government clearance for the move by the end of the current fiscal.

Air India’s management is hoping the new subsidiaries will help improve its balance sheet and also cope with a debt of some Rs40,000 crore. But the plan could face opposition from employees. Air India currently has a workforce of some 31,000.

And switching gears, the Hero Group is finally looking overseas. The company hopes to export two-wheelers to countries in Latin America, the Middle-East and Africa. And it plans use the Hero Group’s own logo for these exports. But before it goes ahead it will need a final separation agreement with old joint venture partner Honda Motor. Last week, the Hero Group and Honda Motor formally announced an end to the partnership that created Hero Honda. Meanwhile, stocks of Hero Honda rocketed up 18 percent on the BSE to1,981.20.